England well placed in first ashes Test by Andy Jalil

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Scorecard:	England v Australia
Event:	Australia in British Isles 2013

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DateLine: 13th July 2013

 

By Andy Jalil at Trent Bridge.
In association with INVESTEC.

 

Andy Jalil at Trent Bridge In association with INVESTEC © Pakistan Cricket Website

 

Nottingham – After the bewildering cricket of the previous day, the third day’s play, although not quite an anti-climax, was certainly nothing to match the extraordinary performance of young Ashton Agar. The cricket, nevertheless, was highly absorbing as the contest between the oldest rivals in sport, continued to enthral another full house in the first Ashes Test with England reaching 326 for six at close of play, an overall lead of 261.

 

Guiding his side to that lead was Ian Bell, who with an innings of great resolve and application was unbeaten on 95 which spanned five and a half hours of superb batting. It’s his highest score against Australia in this country beating 72 at the Oval in 2009. He had combined with Stuart Broad in a solid unbroken stand of 108 for the seventh wicket.

 

Broad, not out with 47 from 122 balls, had played a commendable innings but was fortunate not to be given caught out at slip, on 37, off Agar by umpire Aleem Dar, having very clearly edged the ball which was then deflected off the wicket- keeper to Michael Clarke at first slip. Australians understandably were furious but had no reviews left for the third umpire to consider.

 

Earlier, resuming the second innings on 80 for two, England were well aware of the task that lay ahead of consolidating and building a substantial enough lead to put pressure on the opposition. Batting in the fourth innings would not be a simple task for the tourists on the dry, slow pitch and the England spinner Graeme Swann would have taken note that the two England wickets that fell either side of lunch were claimed by the spinner Agar who was unlucky not to have had Broad’s wicket as well later in the afternoon.

 

Alistair Cook had fallen to a ball that bounced out of the rough for Clarke to take an excellent high one-handed catch just as he had brought up his 30th Test half century from 164 balls. Jonny Bairstow, after a slow 15 in an hour and a half from 62 balls, was beaten, not long after lunch, by one that spun away taking an edge for a catch behind. Prior to that Kevin Pietersen, on 64 from 150 balls – his 31st Test half century – had gone after the first hour playing-on to James Pattinson and having revived the England innings with a 110-run stand with Cook.

 

The only other wicket that had fallen was of Matt Prior for 31 when he mistimed a pull off Peter Siddle to reduce the home side to 218 for six, half-an-hour before tea. Following that the rest of the day’s play saw Bell and Broad slowly place England in a relatively comfortable position.

 

Bell, having hit two fours for his first two scoring shots, a lovely cover drive and a leg glance in an over from Pattison, then settled into a defensive mode with his next boundary coming ten overs later. It was after bringing up his fifty that he began to play a few more aggressive shots, flicking Mitchell Starc to long leg to get to 56. By stumps he had faced 228 balls, twelve of which he hit for fours.

 

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2013 Andy Jalil)